Study: 8 percent of U.S.-born babies have parent in country illegally

Roughly 8 percent of babies born in the U.S. in 2008 were the offspring of illegal immigrants, according to a study just published by the Pew Hispanic Center.

Illegal immigrants, who comprise 4 percent of the U.S. adult population, were the parents of 340,000 of the 4.3 million babies born in the U.S. in 2008 according to the study, which analyzed data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The study by the Washington-based unit of the Pew Research Center also found that 5.1 million &#151 or 7 percent &#151 of children under the age of 17 had parents who were illegal immigrants. Of those 5.1 million children, 79 percent were what conservative activists have labeled “anchor babies” &#151 children born on U.S. soil to a parent who is in the country without proper legal documents.

Any person born in the United States is automatically granted citizenship under the terms of the14th Amendment. Children born to a patent illegally in the United States have become a hot topic in Congress in recent weeks, with some members of the Texas delegation calling for a repeal of the constitutional provision adopted in 1868, following the Civil War and the freeing of Southern slaves.

Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Tyler, has called for a repeal of the amendment, along with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and other conservatives.

“People come here to have babies,” Graham said during a recent appearance on Fox News. “They come here to drop a child. It’s called “drop and leave.” To have a child in America, they cross the border, they go to the emergency room, have a child, and that child’s automatically an American citizen. That shouldn’t be the case. That attracts people here for all the wrong reasons.”